


Potato Salad

by ChettaDrabbles (KOranges)



Series: Whatever the Opposite of Cool Is [2]
Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, F/M, Food, Humor, It's a prequel nobody asked for folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 05:03:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10937565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KOranges/pseuds/ChettaDrabbles
Summary: “What just happened?” Bucky’s face was torn between horrified and delighted.“I can’t explain.” Natasha groaned. Bucky was trying not laugh at her but it was a losing battle.“Try.” He prompted. Pieces of potato salad fell on the table as she wiped her hand furiously.“No.” She whined and let her head hit the table with a thud. “That was awful.”The battle was lost. Bucky started cackling. “That was so, so bad.”(A.K.A. The prequel nobody asked for to Tuesday's post "Happiness". The story of the one time Natasha embarrassed herself beyond all reason and did the one thing more weird than spying on the ROTC team.)





	Potato Salad

**Author's Note:**

> Each of these drabbles are inspired by a prompt I received during an eight month long writing challenge. I'll only be sharing my favorites but every Tuesday & Thursday and I'll post a new one. This is one of several in a connected College AU universe I created- each will be a separate work in the series.
> 
> Prompt: "I can't explain. And I won't even try."  
> Takes place about two years before "Happiness"

Natasha was sitting by herself in the cafeteria. That was normal. College wasn’t suiting her. Her roommate was a bitch. Her classes bored her. Her one extracurricular got cut to give more money to the (honestly horrible) football program. She couldn’t afford any other school. She could barely afford this one, even with all of her scholarships. 

“The way I see it, we should be friends.” James landed into the seat across from her with a thud. 

“James.” Natasha huffed. “I already told you I’m not sleeping with you anymore.” 

“Hence, friends.” He shrugged and took a bite from his burger. “And my friends call me Bucky.” 

Natasha frowned. “I like James.” 

“That was special sex privileges.” He shrugged. Natasha’s face went dark. 

“Special what now?” She snapped. He just grinned and kept chewing. 

“I hate James. Call me Bucky, friend.” He tried again. Natasha picked at her salad. 

“Fine.” She huffed lightly. “Bucky.” 

He grinned and pushed a plate of fries towards her. She pretended she wasn’t grateful. “As your friend, I’m also going to tell you that there’s a guy over at the salad bar who’s been staring at you. Literally every time you come in.” 

“What.” Natasha spun around to look. Bucky made noises and grabbed her hand. 

“You can’t look.” He scolded her. “That’s desperate.” 

“Maybe I am desperate.” She snapped 

“You kicked me out of bed last week.” He reminded her. “You’re not that desperate.” 

She ignored him and turned around to face the salad bar under the guise of taking her tray of half-finished food to the trash cans. She spotted a somewhat familiar looking blonde face by the salad bar and tried to smile at him. But he wasn’t looking in her direction. She waited. He was cute. Not super tall, but handsome. Strong. She wondered why he was waiting so long to look back over in her direction. 

“Not him.” Bucky called. Natasha froze and turned back towards him with wide eyes. He waved. 

“You ass.” She hissed. Now people were staring. She was going to have to actually move now. 

She put her tray on the automated trash disposal, which carried it away. She turned to walk back, trying to scan for whoever had been looking at her like Bucky said but couldn’t see anyone. Not wanting to give up, because she kind of was that desperate, she headed back towards the salad bar, resolving herself to getting a little bit more food while she scoped out the people. Bucky walked up and followed her. 

“Over there.” He whispered. She looked and saw a blonde guy with shaggy hair and a bemused smiled on his face. He was staring right at her. 

“Got it.” She hissed, then pushed him away. There was a reasons he stopped sleeping with him. 

“He’s headed for the sides.” Bucky said, maybe a little too loud. Natasha turned crimson. 

“Shut up.” She snapped. She cast a subtle glance but it didn’t look like he heard Bucky. 

She made a bee-line for the sides. Not any of them appealed to her but she slipped into line right behind him. He didn’t turn around. She stared at the back of his head silently urging him to. He didn’t. Instead, she grabbed a small bowl and went to fill it with something, anything, so that he wouldn’t think she was weird. 

It happened so quickly. She wasn’t even really sure how. One second she was moving to reach for the spoon to potato salad, the next second it wasn’t there. But her hand didn’t stop. She ended up with her hand going directly into the serving tray of potato salad. Then, when it was already too late, she froze. She was wrist deep in the potato salad just frozen. There was a girl on the other side of the salad bar just staring at her in shock. 

When she jerked her hand back out, potato salad came flying with it and went everywhere. A huge blob of it landed on the floor. She needed to retreat. She wanted to apologize but the only sound that came out was a horrified squeak. She dropped the bowl with a clatter and rushed back to the table Bucky was sitting at with his burger. 

“What just happened?” Bucky’s face was torn between horrified and delighted. 

“I can’t explain.” Natasha groaned. Bucky was trying not laugh at her but it was a losing battle. 

“Try.” He prompted. Pieces of potato salad fell on the table as she wiped her hand furiously. 

“No.” She whined and let her head hit the table with a thud. “That was awful.” 

The battle was lost. Bucky started cackling. “That was so, so bad.” 

“I can’t believe that just happened.” She whispered. Her face was hot and she could feel everyone staring at her. She wanted the floor to open up and swallow her whole. 

“You’re lucky we’re friends.” Bucky told her, as he took another bite. 

“Why?” She hissed. He just smiled. 

“Because that means I’ll warn you when the cute guy heads this way.” He told her with a wink. 

“You will.” She sat up a little straighter and looked at him. 

“That was the warning, by the way.” He stood with his tray right as someone else walked up to the table. It was the guy who had been staring at her. She meant to smile but knew it came out more as a grimace. 

He dropped a bowl of potato salad on the table. 

“It seemed clever when I got the bowl, but really now it just seems mean.” He laughed at her. 

“Ohmygod.” Natasha squeaked and covered her face with her hands. 

“Was that your boyfriend?” He asked. Natasha shook her head. 

“No.” She wasn’t going to explain. He thought she was weird already without admitting she’d been some guy’s sexual identity crises. He just looked at her with a grin. 

“I’m Clint.” He reached out his hand. After a second, she shook it. 

“Natasha.” She managed a smile. He offered her a slice of pizza. He had like four slices. She could tell he wanted to ask more questions. After chewing for a couple seconds he caved and leaned across the table. 

“So, do you just really like potato salad?”


End file.
